Hard Pass

This is bullshit and should be stop. Yet this local paper cheers for this dystopia crap.

transcription: how life feels after accepting the fact that you are insane

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47107360

Google is making its Search more centred around AI, turning it into a conversation.

Besides being a worse experience, the websites from which it sources its information are losing all traffic and recognition.

Recommend a list of alternatives:

• Kagi - Paid but better experience than Google
• Ecosia - Similar experience while supporting a good cause
• Qwant - Increasingly unique results and building a EU-first index
• DuckDuckGo - Privacy-focused search, but quality of results may vary

More options: https://purchasewithpurpose.io/category/search-engine/

The shift comes as administration officials struggle to convince the Cuban regime to make major economic and political changes. 05/18/2026

[horrible, but informative article]

The Trump administration has been dancing around the question of whether it will carry out military strikes against Cuba. I am told it is increasingly willing to take such a step.

That’s a significant escalation from a few months ago, when officials were primarily focused on using economic and diplomatic pressure to squeeze the communist regime in Havana.

A U.S. official and a person familiar with the administration’s discussions on Cuba told me that President Donald Trump and his aides have grown frustrated that the U.S. pressure campaign, which includes starving the island of fuel, has not led Cuba’s leaders to agree to significant economic and political reforms. So they’re taking the military option more seriously than previously.

“The mood has definitely changed,” said the person familiar with discussions

The U.S. Department of Justice bars the IRS from conducting any investigation or probes into any past tax declaration of Trump, his family, or any of his companies, for ever.

A Trump-endorsed challenger beat incumbent Thomas Massie in a Kentucky primary on Tuesday, the latest victory in the president’s efforts to oust the remaining dissenting voices in his Republican Party.

In the most expensive US House nomination battle ever, the 14-year congressman lost by 55 per cent to 45 per cent to military veteran Ed Gallrein, who was backed by Trump and some of his billionaire donors.

Massie had been one of Trump’s most prominent Republican critics in Congress, clashing with the president over the Iran war, the Epstein files and the landmark “Big Beautiful” fiscal legislation.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1137331/meta-deploys-momfluencers-to-counter-child-safety-criticism-meta-is-using-instagram-infl

• Meta invites the moms to glossy events promoting its "Teen Account" safeguards, and the influencers then repeat the company’s talking points to their thousands of followers.
• Many of the influencer posts include easy-to-miss disclosures or hashtags indicating they have a paid partnership with Meta.
• TTP also identified doctors and psychologists who are touting Instagram’s Teen Accounts and have a financial relationship with Meta.
• Despite Meta's promotion of the Teen Accounts, reports have shown that they fail to protect young users from content related to sex, drugs, and violence.
• Some influencers are also advocating for one of Meta's top policy priorities: legislation to require the Apple and Google app stores to handle user age verification.
• One medical influencer who was paid to post about the Teen Accounts said they had not been aware of child safety lawsuits against Meta and felt "manipulated" by the company.
• The influencer said Meta edited the script for their Teen Accounts post and gave it an algorithmic boost, helping it rack up millions of views.